The dog owner who was arrested for allegedly biting and punching a jogger was simply trying to protect herself and her pets, according to her lawyer.
Alma Cadwalader, 19, says through attorney Emily Dahm that the altercation started when the jogger used pepper spray on her two dogs that were running off-leash in Anthony Chabot Regional Park on Thursday.
The jogger had told police that the shepherd husky and lab had attacked her, but Cadwalader insists that the dogs had only run up to the woman.
She "assumed the worst," Dahm said about the jogger.
The jogger then alleged that Cadwalader violently accosted her. In Cadwalader's version, the jogger grabbed her hair and kicked her when she tried to grab control of the pepper spray canister.
Cadwalader bit the woman, because she was pulling her hair, Dahm said.
That biting, however, caused "significant wounds," according to park police who arrested Cadwalader on Friday.
Cadwalader is expected in Superior Court in Alameda County on Monday.
